Dance With Me
by natasha0
Summary: "When I dreamed of this moment, "I've Had the Time of My Life" was always playing. Well, what can you do?" A gift for my lovely beta, BryroseA.


Veronica and Lilly lie on the floor in front of the giant TV, hunkered down in a nest of floor pillows and blankets. The lights are low and they are dressed in their jammies, sleepover paraphernalia spread out around them. Fresh painted toenails and headbands used to keep their hair out of the way of the hardening facemasks, the girls' attention is held rapt by the movie they're watching; so much so, in fact, that their lips move silently, matching the dialogue.

"I carried a watermelon." Lilly says the iconic line out loud, in time with Jennifer Grey.

"I carried a watermelon?" Veronica repeats along with the dialogue. The girls dissolve into giggles.

"Seriously, how many times have you guys seen this movie, anyways?" Duncan asks, suddenly walking into the room from behind them. Veronica's head whips around in surprise, her mask cracking as her mouth falls open in surprise. Her face would be flaming pink if it was visible beneath the dried mud.

"DUNCAN! Get out of here, you big loser! You're interrupting girls night beautification!" Lilly exclaims in annoyance.

"Girls covered in mud, and no one invited me? I'm disappointed." Logan pouts as he walks in behind Duncan. "If you ladies wanted to get covered in mud, why didn't you tell me? I would have sold tickets and we could have split the profits. Do you know how much fourteen year-old boys would pay to see that?" His pout morphs into a grin as he notices Veronica's embarrassment. A twinkle appears in his eye in anticipation of her reaction to his words. "Don't know why you guys bother with all this stuff anyway. You're both beautiful as hell already. This shit isn't going to make one smidge of difference." Bull's eye! Veronica turns back quickly toward the TV but looks down at her hands, whipping off the headband so that her hair can hide the mortification on her face. Logan absolutely loves tormenting Veronica with compliments she doesn't know how to respond to. Cracks him the hell up.

Lilly, on the other hand, preens at his compliment. "Well of course we are, aren't we 'Ronica? But we intend to stay that way, Logan. This is all preventive, so that when we're 25 and old, we can still turn on the hot, rich, old guys while we're looking for our next Sugar Daddy!"

"You're going to knock 'em dead, Lil. They won't know what hit 'em." Veronica answers her with fake joviality to hide her embarrassment. "Uh…isn't it time to wash this off, anyway?" She stands up hastily, head bowed so her hair hangs as much as possible, and rushes out of the room, past the boys who are settling themselves onto the overstuffed couch, clearly ready to join the girls for the rest of the night.

Lilly stares after her, shaking her head. "God, Veronica Mars! It's just Logan and Duncan! Why are you so embarrassed? It's not like they caught us naked or anything." She looks over and winks at Logan. "Yet, anyway." Logan smirks in response, relieved that his off-again girlfriend is finally coming round to forgiving him again. Duncan groans and covers his ears.

"Lilly! Gross!"

"Dammit Lilly, c'mon!" Veronica's voice travels through the archway into the den from some distant place with running water.

"All right, all right. Don't get your panties in a bunch." Lilly mutters and she gets up and leaves the room. "Don't you guys touch that movie! We'll be right back and fully intend on finishing it!" she shouts back at them as she disappears.

"Jeez, DK. Your sister is something else. Can't you just imagine it though…?" Logan's voice trails off and his eyes go distant as he watches a scene play out in his mind. His pajama pants twitch noticeably until Duncan responds by throwing a pillow at his lap with no small amount of force. "Dude! That's my sister!"

"And Ronnie. Mmmm, I know," Logan smiles dreamily.

"Knock it off, dude."

Twenty minutes later, the girls re-enter the den, fresh faced and carrying popcorn and drinks for everyone. They all settle in and continue watching the movie in silence for a while.

"Man, there is nothing hotter than a guy who can dance. " Veronica says softly to herself, and squirms as if uncomfortably turned on.

"I know, right? Dancing is supposed to be a prelude to sex. Look at Footloose. They ban it in places like that for precisely that reason, you know." Lilly responds giving her the side-eye, knowingly.

"Ugh. I wish someone would look at me like Johnny looks at Baby when they dance. Look at them! They're perfect!"

"Not perfect, Mars. She misses the lift, look." Logan cuts in.

"Yeah, but look how he makes it OK after. He pulls her out of the mistake and keeps her going. It's, like, symbolic of really being in love. God, it's so romantic."

"So, uh, does that mean the way to your heart is through your feet?" Duncan asks a little shyly.

"Taking notes, Donut?" Lilly asks her brother, but her eyes are on her best friend. Logan's eyes are on her too, waiting to see how she's going to respond. He's well aware that DK has a crush on Veronica, but Lilly's told him that she doesn't really believe it yet. Her arm flings out of the blankets and punches Lilly's hard. "Shut up, Lil."

"Yeah, shut up Lilly," Duncan echoes.

_Ah…so yes, the way to Mars' tender underbelly is through dancing, huh? That's good to know_, thinks Logan. Maybe he and Lilly can use that to help their two idiot friends along. And maybe he can use the excuse of a plan to get back into his ex's good graces again. _It's worth a shot._

A little while later, Veronica shoots up from her cocoon to sit at attention. Johnny has just walked back into the dance hall in the final scene of the movie, clearly Veronica's favourite.

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner." Veronica covers her mouth with her hand, preventing any more dialogue from slipping out.

"See, look. They love each other so much, are so perfect for each other, that they can just react to each others movements to the music. And she makes the lift!" Veronica says, triumphantly. "This is so…there are no words. One day. One day I will dance to this song with the love of my life."

"Veronica Mars, you're such a softie. Seriously, you're making me gag with all your romance crap." Lilly says, laughing at her BFF. "I'm all for dirty dancing, don't get me wrong," her gaze lingers a moment longer than necessary on Logan, "Move sexy on the dance floor and they likely move sexy between the sheets too."

Logan stands up and does his best Fred Astaire spin. "You mean like this, babe?"

Lilly answers, her smile predatory. "You know it, lover."

Logan quirks an eyebrow, Lilly responds with one of her own.

His eyes on Lilly but his words directed at Veronica, Logan says, "Mars, don't listen to Lilly here. She still needs to learn that a little romance is good for the soul."

Lilly rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Excuse us guys. Logan and I have some...dancing to practice."

The desire in Logan's eyes is tempered slightly at Lilly's obvious dismissal of his sentimentality, but then reignites as he vows to himself that he'll be able to convince her someday that he can make her feel what Veronica is describing. All he needs is to keep at it; keep showing her how much he loves her. Then she'll want it too.

Veronica and Duncan watch Logan and Lilly disappear to another room and then turn back to set up another movie.

The summer Logan and Veronica are together, just before she dumps his ass, they are watching Dirty Dancing in his room and making out. "So, V. Do you still think guys are sexy when they can dance?" Logan stands up and does his best imitation of Patrick Swayze gyrating. Veronica giggles at his moves, but does notice that Logan came pretty damn close to pulling them off.

"You know it!" She reaches up and pulls him back down to nibble on his ear. In the background, "I've Had the Time of My Life" begins to play, but neither really notice, wrapped up in each other.

Later, when Veronica is back with Duncan and Logan is left alone in the dark of his room with his iPod on shuffle, that song plays and he thinks of dancing with his Veronica as his hand disappears beneath the sheets of it's own accord.

Logan never thought the Sadie Hawkins dance would be where they would dance together for the first time. He certainly never thought the experience would be this awkward, this difficult.

"Dance with me." she'd said to protect Gia from whatever vitriol he was about to spew forth, but he followed her anyway, despite her motives.

Memories come rushing back, of mud masks and popcorn, of make out sessions and tenderness. He needs to say something, anything, to bring back this moment to the two of them so that it isn't just about dragging him away from Gia. But he can't quite let her see everything that he's feeling, so he tinges his voice with sarcasm.

"When I dreamed of this moment, "I've Had the Time of My Life" was always playing. Well, what can you do?"

Her arms are suddenly around his neck, and he is touching her hips, and the memories are gone, because his mind is completely blank. There is no one else in the world but them.

_I don't wanna hurt you_  
I don't wanna make you sway  
Like I know I've done before  
I will not do it anymore  
I've always been a dreamer  
I've had my head among the clouds  
Now that I'm coming down  
Won't you be my solid ground?

It may not be the song of her dreams and his fantasies, but he thinks that this one might be even better.


End file.
